Sometimes Salvation
by Madame Estrella
Summary: Two men returned to Gotham with the same purpose, one of them succeeded.


Disclaimer: All characters are the property of Bob Kane and D.C. Comics. I receive no compensation for this piece.

* * *

**Sometimes Salvation**

This morning she woke him in his favorite way.

A smile crept across his lips as he slid his hand down the back of her head, his fingers slipping through her long brown hair. He raised his head and looked down his torso at the woman who met his gaze, with him in her mouth. She took him out and ran her tongue from the base to the tip of his penis and he barked a small laugh of pleasure as his head dropped back upon the pillow. He closed his eyes and smiled widely as he used his hand to work her head and began to move his hips.

What they did together would be considered 'slumming' by those in her social circle. Even criminals had their own caste system and standards by which they operated. The motel room, the cheap booze, the free porn on the television all set the mood for Sofia's temporary descent to his level.

Jack Napier was barely twenty-one and sleeping with the daughter of one of America's most powerful mob bosses. She was eight years Jack's senior and the older woman knew what she wanted, unlike most his age, and her experience made her all the more desirable.

She finished him off and crawled up his body and lay on top of him, kissing his throat. He ran his fingers over her soft skin and shifted around until he had her pinned beneath himself, kissing her the way she had him. She made sweet little noises which excited him and raked his skin with her nails.

The phone began to ring and Jack let out a frustrated growl as he glanced at it and the clock beside it. He tore himself away from the woman who tried her damnedest to hold him in place and stood, walking around the bed. He picked the receiver up and slammed it back into its cradle before picking up a pack of cigarettes. He removed one and lit it and then offered Sofia the pack, which she cheerfully accepted.

"It's the big day, Jack" she smiled and blew out a stream of smoke as he sat down beside her and ashed his cigarette.

"Mm-hm" he nodded and changed the channel from the people fucking on-screen to GCN where the early morning news was already playing.

"_Our top story is the parole hearing of Joe Chill scheduled for later this morning. Joe Chill has served fourteen years of his sentence for the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne."_

Jack studied the image of the man upon his arrest juxtaposed beside one of him now aged fifteen years. Sofia scooted over and wrapped her thin arms around his waist and kissed his shoulder. He shrugged gently and then stood, stepping out of her embrace. He heard her laugh and glanced back at her.

"You look so serious, Jack." She giggled and smooched at him, light from the television sparkling in her dark eyes. He mashed out his cigarette and picked up a few articles of her clothing from the floor and tossed them onto the bed.

Sofia was playing nice and being flirtatious now, but Jack knew her mood would change very quickly if he didn't get her out of there soon. Passionate people were great lovers and made you happy when they were happy. But when they hated you, they _really_ hated you. Jack had been privy to more than his share of Sofia's displays upon others. In the past couple of years he had acted as her bodyguard on many occasions, mostly because he had more patience in dealing with her than the others in her father's employ did.

Sofia Falcone was as ruthless as her father. She was a foul-mouthed harridan and cut-throat bitch if there ever was one. But she was a 'Daddy's Girl' and The Roman loved his little girl and she would do anything to make him happy. Anything that was except for dipping into the cookie jar when she had met a young man among her father's 'help' who she found irresistible.

The first time they'd had sex, she'd been after him like a bitch in heat. Jack had been nineteen and a little frightened by the woman's intensity. He'd been no virgin, but the woman made him feel like he was again. The same awkward nervousness had enveloped him and he swore he hadn't breathed for nearly two minutes while she ravaged his mouth as if she were trying to eat him.

He'd made it through the event unscathed and had moved to Chicago for school and to work for Falcone there. When Sofia visited Chicago on business she used him like a plaything behind closed doors. Jack began anticipating their trysts as well as the non-sexual aspects of their affair. They were like-minded in a lot of ways and she was intelligent. Most of the people Jack slept with couldn't satisfy his intellectual needs and he found himself starved of them when he and Sofia were together.

Their brief exchanges meant a lot to him and although he was utterly disposable to her, he found something in her he craved. Never one for understanding his emotions as they ranged from fleeting to extreme and made him for the most part uncomfortable, he didn't realize that Sofia Falcone was his first love.

Last night the woman had come to his room at the Red Horse Motel wearing a trench coat, sunglasses and little else. From the starry-eyed gaze she was giving him, he realized this had more to do with his job than it did his personal satisfaction.

"You're going to make my father a very happy man today, Jack." She smiled. And when Carmine Falcone was happy, Sofia was happy.

She dressed in her lace underwear and slip of a dress and sauntered over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. They kissed for a few meaningful moments and parted. She went back to her life and he went to the shower.

* * *

Jack stood outside the courtroom breathing in the cold fresh air. Inside, the room was stifling and packed with a throng of onlookers and reporters waiting like vultures. As the proceedings went on, he could hear the men and women of the media composing and editing, then reediting their stories.

He promised himself that if he ever did anything 'newsworthy' he would hit the media with such an impact that it would leave them speechless. No one would be sitting there trying to think of ways to make his story 'more interesting' to help their careers, ratings or readership.

The door to the courtroom opened and a single man stormed outside, the door crashing closed behind him. Jack looked up from the doodles he'd been making on his small notepad and followed the man with his gaze.

Bruce Wayne, the man whose parents had been murdered in front of him as a child by the man on trial inside strode past him. Jack studied his expression and found a multitude of emotions washing across Bruce Wayne's face.

Jack had taken an interest in the human condition when it came to the emotions people expressed in extreme situations. Usually it was when he was killing them, but sometimes he sat back and watched other people involved in some great drama of their life. Car accidents, crime scenes, public arguments were free entertainment for Jack and each was a unique opportunity to study humankind.

Bruce Wayne stopped a short distance away and Jack saw him handling something. His acute senses and keen observation told him what it was before he caught a glimpse of the gun in the man's hand.

Jack smiled, amused.

Bruce Wayne was going to gun down Joe Chill in the corridor the way the man had killed his parents in that alley. It was poetic justice at its finest.

Unfortunately for Bruce, Jack was there to do the same.

He watched Bruce adjust the gun beneath his sleeve and steel himself in his resolve to do what Jack imagined he had desired to do for a very long time. One of Gotham's most affluent citizens and the child of the reputed savior of the city was about to fall.

When the courtroom doors opened, the reporters descended.

Two men walked toward their mark and one fired before the other could even raise his gun.

Chaos erupted as Joe Chill hit the marble floor and Jack glimpsed the shocked expression Bruce Wayne bore.

His vengeance had been denied.

Someday he would thank Jack for this.


End file.
